EditChain

AI-powered editable design platform with cryptographic edit provenance.

Architecture

editchain/
├── apps/
│   ├── web/          # React + Vite frontend (canvas editor)
│   └── api/          # Node.js + Express backend (AI + provenance)
├── packages/
│   └── shared-types/ # TypeScript types shared across apps
└── contracts/        # Solidity smart contracts (Hardhat)

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Node.js 20+
• pnpm 9+
• Docker (for Postgres + Redis)

1. Install dependencies

pnpm install

2. Configure environment

cp .env.example .env
# Fill in ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and other values

3. Start infrastructure

docker compose up -d

4. Run database migrations

cd apps/api
pnpm prisma migrate dev

5. Start all services

pnpm dev  # runs both web + api via Turborepo

• Frontend: http://localhost:5173
• API: http://localhost:3001

Key Files

File	Purpose
apps/api/src/services/svgGenerator.service.ts	AI prompt → structured SVG
apps/api/src/services/editChain.service.ts	Merkle tree provenance (novel)
apps/web/src/store/designStore.ts	Canvas state management
apps/web/src/store/editChainStore.ts	Edit event accumulation
contracts/EditChainNFT.sol	On-chain provenance + ERC-721
packages/shared-types/design.ts	Core data model

Research Contribution

The core novelty is element-level edit provenance:

1. Every canvas edit creates an EditEvent with a pointer to the previous event's hash
2. The chain of events forms a Merkle tree
3. The Merkle root is stored on-chain at mint time
4. Anyone can verify a single edit event without downloading the full chain (Merkle proof)

This is distinct from existing work which only hashes the final output.

Next Steps

• Connect Prisma DB to routes
• Add Fabric.js canvas editor component
• Implement IPFS upload via Pinata
• Deploy contracts to Polygon Mumbai testnet
• Add wallet connection (wagmi + RainbowKit)
• User study for research paper